Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney hurled himself into the deep end of international politics Tuesday and spent much of the rest of the week gingerly paddling his way back to solid ground.

View full sizeRepublican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leaves the podium after he makes comments on the killing of U.S. embassy officials in Benghazi, Libya, while speaking in Jacksonville, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

While most of the criticism directed at Romney has come from politicians who’ve rarely ventured beyond their Washington comfort zones, a sampling of former senior diplomats say Romney would have been better suited remaining silent on the matter, or simply offering supportive words to the nation.

Dennis Jett, a former ambassador to Mozambique and Peru and now a professor at Penn State, said Romney’s statements showed a lack of experience and judgment.

“Mr. Romney’s attempt to make political advantage of the incident was despicable,” said Jett, a Democrat who was first appointed ambassador under Republican President George H.W. Bush.

“I can’t think of another example where another presidential candidate would be so reckless, and so callous, and so unacquainted with the realities of dealing with these situations to make a statement like the one he made and try to take advantage of it,” Jett added.

Though more than 50 American hostages were being held in Iran during the breadth of the 1980 presidential campaign, GOP nominee Ronald Reagan maintained a hardline stance against negotiating with terrorists.

But Reagan largely avoided criticizing President Jimmy Carter for his handling of the on-going crisis.

“I would be fearful that I might say something that was presently underway or in negotiations, and thus expose it and endanger the hostages,” Reagan said during a 1980 debate with Carter. “And sometimes, I think some of my ideas might require quiet diplomacy where you don’t say in advance, or say to anyone, what it is you’re thinking of doing.”

Romney could have avoided criticism by behaving like Reagan in 1980, placing national interests first and rallying round the flag, said Joseph Melrose, a former U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone and currently a professor at Ursinus College in Montgomery County.

“We put political considerations aside and always present a united front,” Melrose said of the national political temperament during foreign crises. “Certainly in 9-11 we presented a united front. Coming together makes our position stronger in the world’s eye. If not it’ll be seen as worthy of exploitation, and we don’t need that.”

A veteran of attacks on U.S. embassies in Syria in the early 1980s, in Kenya in 1998, and in Sierra Leone the same year, Melrose said Romney likely jumped at the Libya situation because he likely hadn’t begun receiving the customary security briefings bestowed on presidential nominees.

Without those briefings, “his people would have to rely on what’s out there in the press and that’s not always good,” said Melrose, who joined the diplomatic corps during the Nixon administration and was appointed ambassador under President Bill Clinton. “Now that he’s an official candidate, he’ll start getting security updates, which should prevent this in the future.”

Romney’s break with presidential campaign protocol is magnified by the soft endorsement he received during the summer from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who maintains a frosty relationship with Obama.

“It is grossly inappropriate for any leader to take sides in the U.S. political elections,” said Adrian Basora, who was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic under President George H.W. Bush and is currently a senior fellow at the center-right Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

On Friday, Romney kept the heat on Obama’s poor relationship with Netanyahu.

Romney criticized the president for not arranging to meet with America’s “closest ally” and “best friend in the Middle East” when Netanyahu visits New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. The snub was “confusing and troubling,” Romney said.

Jett said Romney should distance himself from Netanyahu’s political meddling, or at least keep his relationship with the foreign premier separate from the election.

“It would be very appropriate, but he’s not going to do that,” Jett said, noting that the two men are old friends from the time they worked together in the 1970s. “He’s in Mr. Netanyahu’s pocket and he’s not going to say anything against him, or the storyline that Obama’s weak on Israel.”

Still, the heavy criticism of Romney’s statements on Libya prompted the former Massachusetts governor to throttle back his criticism of the administration’s handling of the situation. Romney paid tribute to Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the Libya attack.

“Now our attention is focused on the loss of life and the tragedy of having a remarkable ambassador and diplomatic members, have their lives taken,” he said in an exclusive interview with ABC News that was broadcast Friday. “This is a great sadness and tragedy for America.”

The newer tone is in line with what many pundits and foreign policy experts have suggested.

“This is not an occasion to score partisan political points,” said Basora. “This is an occasion for patriots to pull together and praise a patriot lost in the national interest.”

John Wolf, former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia, chief monitor of the Middle East Roadmap for Peace, and current president of the Eisenhower Foundation in Philadelphia, would not criticize Romney or broach the ramifications of his remarks on the presidential campaign.

But Wolf acknowledged that “it took him a long time” to strike the appropriate tone.

“The focus should have been and should remain on Chris Stevens and his colleagues,” said Wolf, a 34-year diplomat who became a full ambassador under President George H.W. Bush.

Melvyn Levitsky, a former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria under Reagan and a former ambassador to Brazil under Clinton, acknowledged the implications on the presidential campaign.

“The election heightens these things and maybe forces some of our politicians to say things they wouldn’t say otherwise,” said Levitsky, a 35-year diplomat who now teaches at the University of Michigan. “This is not a political issue when one of our ambassadors is killed, but internally it sets a bad example when it becomes a football in a political campaign.”

Whether the flap will cause long-term damage to Romney’s presidential hopes will likely depend on how long the anti-Muslim YouTube video — produced in California by an Egyptian-American —continues to foment demonstrations, the ambassadors said.

Meanwhile, there may be some immediate price for Romney’s presidential ambitions to pay.

“The timing and nature of the remarks was completely off-base,” added Basora. “It will at least marginally hurt Romney because he doesn’t come across as statesman-like.”

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